Imagine that if the admission rate of a university is 40% (moderate for American students), then the probability of being rejected as a student is simply 60% (regardless of other factors). Although the admission rate of extension materials is not low, applying for only one school is not enough to ensure that students are admitted. Assuming that students continue to apply for another university with the same admission rate, the probability of being rejected by two universities is about 60%*60%=36%.
On the other hand, the probability of being admitted to at least one university is 64%, only a little more than half, which is obviously not enough'. We are still trying our luck, so if we continue to add schools like this (the admission rate is 40%), the probability of being admitted to at least one university in the sixth university is about 95%, and the probability of being admitted to the eighth school is 98%, which is basically certain.
Generally speaking, for American students, as College Kickstart said, it is enough to apply to 6-8 universities normally. However, considering the fierce competition among international students, especially China students, and the so-called admission rate announced by universities mainly includes American students, it is absolutely necessary to add 2-4 universities.
2. Ensure that 2-3 schools arrive, 4-6 matching schools and 2-3 safe schools.
So how are these schools with different gradients divided? In fact, this involves many factors. Here you can choose the simplest and most direct way: according to the interval between the school admission rate and the average SAT score of students.
For example:
Challenge schools refer to schools whose admission rate is less than 25% or whose students' SAT scores are in the lowest 25% range;
A counterpart school refers to a school whose admission rate is higher than 25% and whose students' SAT scores are in the middle 50% or higher;
A safe school refers to a school whose admission rate is higher than 50% and whose students' SAT scores are in the top 25% range.
In addition, there is another kind of school, non-ideal school, which refers to schools with an admission rate below 25% and students' SAT scores in the lower 25% range.